Member Info for TroytoTiber

I’ve had confirmation from the company that the RNS is misstated and the connected persons disclosure should state a stock purchase.

The share price was hovering just above 2p a share by close on March 21st - the day of the transaction. No one without inside information therefore would have bought the shares from Michael Laurier at 3.5p.

So if he did sell then it must have been to either Somerston or to Vincel as the two institutional shareholders who took part in the placing and would have knowledge of the placing pricing prior to the RNS being issued in March 22nd.

It doesn’t make any sense for that transaction to happen with either party as they’re taking part in the placing. Even if it did, it the quantum of shares purchased from Laurier would require a disclosure by the buyer as it would push them through a percentage holding threshold.

I’ve sent an email to SYM to clarify though.

Artji, always good that someone reads to the end of these statements. I had indeed thought that i got to the end when the text stated 'END' for the first time so didnt see this.

Suspect though that this is a typo. The transaction date is given as March 21st and at no point could anyone sell for 3.5p on March 21st. (I dont think that anyone could have sold for 3.5 for weeks). Laurier clearly stated that he bought £105k of stock on the Investor Meet Company call and it is clearly stated in the main text of the announcement that this is new money from him. If indeed he has bought and sold then there would surely be two separate connected persons disclosures of equal amount.

I'll email the company and ask them to clarify and correct the typo and then reissue statement so everyone is clear as this is an important point. Laurier has invested and he has done so because he believes that the short term looks good.

Michael Laurier also buying. When I’ve spoken to him in the past he’s stated that he doesn’t believe in the signalling power of directors stock purchases as there is too much day trading that effectively cancels out this signal. So I read the fact that he is buying now as more an indication that of growing confidence that he will make good money on his investment in the short term.

Can still buy in open market for around 3.2p so can’t see the retail offering getting taken up at this rate.

I’ve been too optimistic (obviously) on the share for so many years now but might as well continue. Quite a lot of detail in the rns on outlook and chance to delve deeper into the details of some of it in the company meeting later. My money still on share price moving up over next 12 months and potentially significantly up if India d2w approvals come in and full reg changes happen in Saudi.

Amazing.

Frustrating to still be reading about seemingly endless delays in regulatory developments and pre commercial trials/testing etc. but this is a good outcome to bridge financing until some of these opportunities begin to land.

Several transformative opportunities so just needs one of these to come through and shares will be meaningfully higher from here.

EU aside, SYM aren’t even selling big quantities of d2w in the Americas!

It’s a very strange RNS . Go tell the customers direct as they won’t be reading RNSs from SYM.

Hold them to account

seeking some kind of reassurance in the absence of any updates from the management team at sym i read back through some old trading updates. the adage jam tomorrow is obviously well used in connection with sym but the scale of non delivery is quite staggering. even chance alone would land at least one of the many big ticket sales growth opportunities.

i still therefore find it hard to believe that a group of people can be this incompetent. here’s an extract from an update a while back on the opportunity for india and d2w…

based on current enquiry and order activity, sales of d2w by symphony india are expected to increase to levels of over £250,000 per month from early 2023. further investment is being made by symphony india to enhance its marketing and sales capability, with five new experienced employees expected to join shortly. this investment is being made now to enable symphony india to strengthen its position in the indian market which it estimates could generate over £10 million in annual sales during the course of 2024.

symphony india has an established high level management team to support a pan-india distribution network. it currently has 16 new hub distributors either in place or in final contact discussions. hub distributors are large, well-connected third-party companies with strong customer connections, and expert technical and sales personnel. if appointments continue on the current trajectory, more than 30 hub-distributors should be in place before the end of h1-2023.

the increase in sales is being driven by the plastic waste management rules 2022 (as amended 6.7.22) which permits government-approved biodegradable plastic products to be exempted from restrictions that would ban most plastic film products unless they are above 50-micron thickness, and 120 microns for carrier bags, (which generally means an increase in cost by more than two to three times). producers and brand owners using certified biodegradable plastic materials will be free from this obligation, thus providing symphony's d2w technology with a competitive advantage in a country with a population of c.1.4 billion.

symphony's d2w technology has been tested by intertek india, a government-approved laboratory, to the astm standard 6954 (an internationally recognised standard for proving biodegradability and non eco-toxicity of plastic products in the open environment), and symphony india is waiting for official approval that producers using d2w technology will be exempt from the regulations. customers are however, already placing orders and activity is increasing as stated above.

£10m of sales from d2w in india alone by the end of this year. be good to get an update on that now that q1 2024 is nearing its end.

grupo bimbo, saudi d2w sales, fire ******ants and insect repellent as well as a host of other d2p applications. for those still invested please contact the management on this and up the pressure to hold them

If they’re all in Australia at the moment then they’ve been asleep while the price has been falling. We might Expect and RNS prepared and ready to go for when UK wakes up tomorrow but who knows

Likely that SYM will update more fully in the next few days. Last weeks announcement would have come as a disappointment so it’s good that they avoid a knee jerk response while emotions might be running high. They’ll consider their position and next steps carefully and update soon. Multiple avenues for growth and no d2w sales in EU at risk from this update (nothing priced in for any potential future EU d2w sales either to my mind).

Plenty of questions for the company to answer on commercial traction from ME, India and Americas regions. Frustratingly close but until we see clear

Evidence of meaningful and scalable progress then the shares unlikely to move a great deal I suspect.

Agree with LAS and would also add that not all about EU court ruling. Sym have positioned well over recent years to be beneficiaries of regs changes in large markets of Saudi Arabia and India. Thankfully management have now adopted the more reasonable stance on communications of timing for the opportunities, which they should have done from the start. They don’t know and can’t predict timing. When the regs do come through both markets have the potential to transform revenues and profits!

AIM unloved at the moment and these are increasingly quiet trading days in the run in Xmas. Not the time to be trying to sell larger blocks of shares but this appears to be what’s happening. 170k share trade reported today and suspect that it is a sell. There may be more behind it keeping pressure on the price. No buyers here in this one until Laurier begins to demonstrate sustainable sales growth. Lots promised in the interims recently on growth but we’ve been here many times before - jam tomorrow. Hopefully he delivers this time but hope isn’t a great investment strategy.

Funding is a concern but I’m staying in on this one for now. Everyone is under water now no matter when you bought so it’s a difficult decision on whether to cut losses or not. Good luck to everyone.

Agree that a divi is a little way off yet. The company have stated that are looking to invest around $2bn in expansion capex over the course of the next 3 to 4 years so would be a timeframe after that for any cash returns. However also book value will increase significantly also not just with the investment but also the return on this investment.

Seem to remember company saying that this year they would invest in maximising output from existing wells. Next year they plan to invest in pilot testing for shale and beginning to expand cbm well count again - suspect they would aim for around 40 to 50 new cbm wells in 2024. 2025 would then see another 50 odd cbm wells and hopefully some shale gas production towards the end of the year. All the cash generated from increased production will be needed to finance another potentially 200 new additional cbm wells and expansion of shale gas in 2026 and 2027 I suspect so maybe a small dividend in 2028 as capex requirements begin to decline and cashflow increases significantly.

I’m thinking though that GEEC has relisted by then in order to tap public markets for the scale of finance needed. Unlikely to be a UK market listing. The US is probably where they get access to a significant number of investors who are still prepared to invest in growth oil and gas plays and know how to value them. Shortly after that I’m predicting that GEEC are bought out by one of the neighbouring O&G companies producing from the Raniganj field. So we’re unlikely to ever see a dividend from GEEC as someone wil have paid £5+ for each of our shares Bismarck before the company get around to paying them.

Agreed. Only upside of attending would be to take advantage of any opportunity to put some questions to the board about the development timeline, funding requirements and how they meet them and how pipeline construction progress is opening up new markets for sales (and where are those sales).

Next year!

The wait goes on! I’m still encouraged and believe that sales will start to grow quickly with new opportunities landing, but the timing is very uncertain. Tone of language keeps changing - now confident in the short to medium term. I’d like to know what they mean by medium term. Anyhow, I’ve waited this long already and can do another 2 years if that’s what needed. Don’t want to miss it when the sales do begin to scale up.

It’s a reasonable question Hounddog10 and maybe worth asking Laurier directly. But whatever the challenges are in fitting additional equipment to dose different batches correctly, the manufacturers are now required by law to do it. Suspect, that it is not that difficult nor capex intensive (as seem to remember SYM commenting on this a while back).

Definitely share your frustrations on the evaporating sales pipeline. 3 months left for ML to prove us wrong !

Good to see this. Changes in regs in ME have been highlighted as significant near term driver of sales and profits growth. It’s small obviously and won’t affect the overall profit number that much - good to get guidance from the company at the results announcement- but maybe an indicator of change being imminent in more significant jurisdictions like Saudi.

Np Bismarck. Did you manage to attend the AGM? I couldn’t get my act together in time so if you did join great to hear thoughts (or anyone else still reading this board).

Slight topping up seems prudent as I can’t help but feel that the very subtle shift in language used about moving back into profit between the agm statement and the trading update is typical of SYM in that expectations are drifting outwards.

Still believe The medium term outlook is good maybe even very good but just need some confidence building sales and profit growth traction. Converting the big orders always seems to elude them. All eyes peels for a humdinger of an outlook statement this time around.

Interesting the company have set this up. Worth checking to see what is possible for those wanting an exit.

https://jpjenkins.com/global-depository-receipts-unlisted-gdrs-now-trading-at-j-p/

Company had no obligation to do this so I wonder what the rationale is?